Terminal applicator having terminal bending means



' 3,496,626 TERMINAL APPLICA'I'OR HAVING TERMINAL BENDING MEANS Filed Feb. 15, 1967 Feb. 24, 1970 ULLMAN ETAL 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 R. ULLMA'N El AL Feb. 24, 1970 TERMINAL APPIQICATOR HAVING TERMINAL BENDING MEANS 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 15, 1967 Feb. 24, 1970 R. ULLMAN EI'AL 3,496,626 TERMINAL APPLIOATOR :HAVING TERMINAL mun-rm MEANS Filed Feb. 15, 19.67 I S'SheetS-Sheet s Fin? ITMII w alkal Feb. 24, 1970. L A ET-AL 3,496,626

TERMINAL APPLICATOR HAVING TERMINAL BENDING MEANS 5 ShggtS-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 15, 1967 United States Patent Ofi ice 3,496,626 Patented Feb. 24, 1970 US. Cl. 29-203 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Applicator is intended for use with terminals in ladder strip form having ferrule portions extending normally of the plane of the strip and connected to the strip by a a neck. Terminal strip is fed to crimping zone of applicator and ferrule portion of terminal is crimped onto wire. Terminal strip is then fed downstream from crimping zone and the neck of the terminal is bent through substantially 90 angle so that the neck is generally U- shaped and the wire extends parallel to the plane of the strip. Subsequently, crimped termination is severed from strip and has crimped connection between wire and terminal disposed back-to-back with respect to the contact or receptacle portion of the termination.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The invention herein described is related to the invention disclosed and claimed in application Ser. No. 549,585, filed May 12, 1966, by Willard Le Roy Busler for Crimping and Forming Machine, now US. Patent 3,348,286 issued Oct. 24, 1967.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The majority of all crimpable electrical terminals manufactured have a contact portion and a crimp portion axial alignment with each other, the relationship being such that after crimping the connector onto the wire, the axis of the wire extends parallel to the axis of the contact portion of the terminal with the contact portion being disposed directly in front of the wire. Under some circumstances, however, a need arises for specialized types of crimped electrical connections in which the crimped connection between the wire and the terminal is located against, or back-to-back, with respect to the contact or receptacle portion of the terminal. Specialized terminals of this general type may be required under circumstances where only a limited amount of space is available for the terminal and/or where the axis of the wire to which the terminal is crimped must extend transversely of the axis of the receptacle portion of the terminal. For example, large numbers of terminals are used to connect wires to the contact tabs or pins in the headers of compressor units in refrigerators and space is usually very limited under these circumstances. As a result, certain specialized types of terminals have been developed for use with the header contacts of a refrigerator compressor unit. The need for such specialized types of terminals can, however, arise wherever terminals are used in extremely crowded circumstances as in some parts of a washing machine or in confined areas around an automobile engine.

The present invention is directed to an electrical terminal applicator which is adapted to crimp the leading terminal of a strip of terminals onto a Wire and subsequently bend the crimped portion of the terminal with respect to the receptacle portion of the terminal to produce a crimped termination in which the receptacle portion of the terminal is disposed back-to-back (rather than in alignment with) the crimped portion of the terminal. An object of the invention is thus to provide an applicator for contact terminals which includes a means for bending the crimped portion of the terminal with respect to the contact portion thereof. A further object is to provide a relatively simple and foolproof device in which both the crimping operation and the bending operation are carried out in a precisely controlled manner. A further object is to provide a manual applicator for applying terminals to wires in which the operator need only position the wire in the terminal during each cycle and in which a bending operation will be simultaneously carried out on a previously crimped termination without the necessity of operator attention or control.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a crimping die and a crimping anvil, the die being movable relatively towards and away from the anvil along a predetermined path. The terminals, in ladder strip form and with their ferrule forming portions extending normally to the plane of the strip, are fed towards the crimping zone to position the leading uncrimped terminal of the strip on the anvil with the plane of the strip disposed parallel to the path of movement of the die and in front of the anvil. The leading uncrimped terminal is crimped onto a wire upon movement of the die towards the anvil and the strip is then fed to position this crimped terminal downstream from the crimping station at a bending station. During the next operating cycle, the crimped portion of the terminal positioned at this bending station is bent downwardly through a substantially angle until the ferrule portion is disposed back-to-back with respect to the contact portion of the terminal and the wire extends parallel to the plane of the strip. At a subsequent station, the crimped termination is severed from the strip and, advantageously, the strip is cut into fragments to facilitate its disposal.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a preferred form of terminal applicator in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a short section of terminal strip illustrating the manner in which the terminals are crimped onto wires and the manner in which the crimped portion of each terminal is bent with respect to the receptacle portion;

FIGURE 2A is a plan view from above of one of the terminals shown in FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 3 is a frontal view with parts broken away of-the applicator of FIGURE 1;

FIGURES 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10 are views taken along the lines 4-4, 5-5, 8-8, 9-9, and 10-10 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURES 6 and 7 are fragmentary side views showing portions of the structure shown in FIGURE 8 and illustrating the manner in which the crimped terminals are bent relative to the terminal strip at the bending station;

FIGURE 11 is a fragmentary frontal view of the stripshearing mechanism of the preferred embodiment; and

FIGURE 12 is a view taken along the lines 1212 of FIGURE 11.

Referring first to FIGURE 2, an applicator in accordance with the invention is adapted to crimp wires 20 onto individual contact terminals 8 and thereafter bend the crimped portion of the termination in a manner such that the wire extends substantially parallel to the receptacle portion of the terminal. A strip 2 comprises a ladder strip having a continuous carrier strip 4 in which there are provided spaced-apart pilot holes 6 which are utilized to feed the strip in the applicator. The individual terminals extend laterally from the carrier strip and are connected thereto by means of connecting slugs or necks 10 which are integral at their upper ends, as viewed in FIGURE 2, with plate-like portions 12 of the terminals. The ferrule-forming portions of the terminals comprise U-shaped sections 16, 18 which are adapted to be crimped onto the insulation and the stripped end of the Wire respectively, these ferrule forming portions extending normally of the plane of the strip and being connected to the strip by a connecting neck or slug 14. The receptacle or contact portion of the connector in the disclosed embodiment comprises a substantially flat Web 22 having sidewalls 24 extending from its edges which are reversely curled towards each other and towards the plane of the web. Receptacles of this general type are commonly known and are adapted to receive simple rectangular tabs on a mating wire or on an electrical device. The receptacle portions of the terminals are connected to the plate-like portions 12 by means of reversely bent connecting necks 26 as shown best in FIGURE 2A. As will be explained below, after crimping the wires onto the terminals and bending of the crimp portions, the individual terminals are severed from the neck portions at 28 and the carrier strip is fragmented as shown at 30 to facilitate its disposal.

Referring now to FIGURES l and 3, a preferred form of terminal applicator 32 in accordance with the invention comprises a reciprocable ram 34 which is adapted to be connected to the driving member (ram or eccentric) of a suitable bench press (not specifically shown), the press having a platen 35 on which the base plate 38- of the applicator is mounted. The ram 34 is slidably contained in a housing 36 which is supported above the base plate 38 by means of a bracket or support member 37 integral with both the housing and the support plate. The terminal strip is guided towards the crimping zone of the applicator (which is beneath the ram 34) by means of a guide track generally indicated at 40 and comprising a main guide plate 42, a spacer plate 43, and a retainer plate 52, see FIGURES 4 and 10. The main guide plate 42 is secured against the front side of the base plate by fasteners 46 which extend through the lower portion 44 of the main guide plate. The spacer plate 43 is interposed between the portion 44 of the main plate and the base plate 38 and is cut away or stepped as shown at 50 to define a slot which receives the neck portions 10 of the terminals and the carrier strip 4. The main plate 42 is also provided with an inwardly facing channel 48 on its upper side which is adapted to receive the receptacle portions of the terminals. The strip is thus fed as shown in FIGURE 1 with its plate extending parallel to the path of reciprocation of the ram and with the ferrule-forming portions 16, 18 of the terminals having their axes extending transversely of the path of reciprocation of the ram. The relatively thin retainer plate 52 is secured against the rearward side of the main guide plate 42 to hold the strip in the recess 48. This retainer plate does not extend past the crimping station but the spacer plate 43 is provided with an upstanding flange 53 on the lefthand side of the crimping stations which is spaced from the main plate 42. This flange 53 serves as a retainer plate for the strip. In addition, it functions as a bending plate and as a fixed shearing block as will be described below.

A crimping die 54 is mounted on the base plate 38 at the crimping station immediately beneath the ram 34 and is adapted to support the leading uncrimped terminal of the strip as shown in FIGURE 4. At this crimping station, this leading uncrimped terminal is crimped onto a wire by crimping dies 55, 57 on the lower end of ram 34. These crimping dies curl the sidewalls of the crimped portion of the terminal into surrounding relationship with an inserted wire. The completed crimped connection is thus as shown in FIGURE 2 by the second terminal from the right of this figure.

Immediately downstream along the feed path from the crimping station, there is provided a bending station at which the neck 14 is bent downwardly as shown at 14' in FIGURE 2 so that the crimp portion 16, 18 of the terminal are back-to-back with respect to the ferrule portion or receptacle portion. Referring to FIGURES 4 and 5, this bending operation is carried out by means of a bending finger 56 rigidly mounted on the end of a depending arm 58 which, in turn, is pivotally mounted at 66 on a block 68 secured to the underside of the ram 34. The pivoted arm 58 is normally biased in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIGURE 5 by means of a spring 72 which is interposed between a depending portion of a block on the ram and one side of the arm 58. This leftward bias (in FIGURE 5) of the arm 58 maintains a cam roller 60 on the lower end of the arm against the cam surface 64 of a cam block 62. Cam block 62 in turn is adjustably mounted in a suitable recess in the base plate 38 (FIGURE 4) by means of an adjusting screw 63 which is threaded into the block 62.

It will be apparent that during downward movement of the ram, the bending finger 56 will move relatively downwardly, engage the crimped connection at the bending station, and bend this crimped connection downwardly until the wire extends parallel to the plate of the strip as shown in FIGURE 1. The cam follower 60 and cam surface 64 function to move the bending finger leftwardly and rightwardly during its downward movement as will be apparent from the contour of the cam surface 64 in order to achieve a wiping effect on the upper surface of the terminal and to apply bending force at the location of the crimped connection which will achieve the desired result. The adjustably mounted cam 62 thus permits a precise control of the bending operation.

It is advantageous to provide a support or backup plate between the plate-like section 12 of the terminal being bent and the opposed side of the web portion 22 of the terminal. The disclosed embodiment of the invention provides such a back-up plate 73 (FIGURES 3 and 8) which is vertically reciprocable at the bending station so that it can be interposed bet-ween the parts 12, 22 of the terminal during the bending operation but moves downwardly out of the path of strip feed during the feeding portion of the operating cycle. Plate 73 is slidably mounted against the side of the main guide plate 42 and is connected at its lower end by means of a pin 147 to an arm 144, the pin 147 extending through a suitable slot in the main guide plate as shown best in FIGURE 3. The arm 144 is disposed in a recess 145 on the face of the portion 44 of the main guide plate and is pivoted at its end 146 to this plate. Intermediate its ends, a pin 150 is provided in arm 144 which extends inwardly through an opening in plate 42 for engagement by collars 152, 154 mounted in spaced-apart relationship on a control rod 148. The control rod is secured to, and depends from, the lower end of the ram, the arrangement being such that at the end of downward movement, the collar 154 engages the pin 150 thereby swinging the arm 144 downwardly and pulling plate 73 downwardly from its position shown in FIG- URE 8. Near the end of the upward stroke of the ram 34, the collar 152 engages the pin 150 and moves the plate upwardly so that it occupies the position shown in FIGURES 6-8 during the bending operation of the next operating cycle. It should also be noted that the rearward side of the retainer plate 52 is recessed as shown at at the bending station to permit a slight overbending of the crimped portion of the connector.

The terminal strip feeding mechanism which will now be described is disposed downstream from the crimping station and is actuated by a cam surface 74 on the lefthand side as viewed in FIGURE 3, of the ram 34'. This cam surface bears against a cam follower 76 on a reciprocal slide 78 supported at its ends in the housing 36 and in a boss 80 on the bracket 37. Slide 78 is normally biased rightwardly as viewed in FIGURE 3, so that cam follower 76 bears against cam surface 74, by

means of a spring 84 which extends into a suitable recess in the slide and has its opposite end against a screw in the boss 80. Slide 78 has a depending flange 86 to which a. lever 90 is pivotally connected as shown at 88. The upper end of this lever has a pin slot connection 92, 94 with a fixed bracket 96 secured to, and extending from, the housing 36. At its lower end, a block 98 (FIGURE 9) is mounted on the lever 90 and bifurcated to provide a pair of spaced-apart legs 99 which straddle a feed block 100, the feed block being pivotally secured to the block 98 by means of a pin 102. Block 100' extends towards the crimping zone and has a ledge 104 on its end on which a relatively thin plate 108 is adjustably mounted as shown at 106. Plate 108 has an arm 110 which extends laterally towards the feed track 40 on a level with the pilot holes 6 of the carrier strip. A feed finger 112 is pivotally secured to the arm 110, the upper end of this feed finger as shown in FIGURE 9 being movable against a complementary surface of the arm 110 so that feed finger 112 is permitted to move from its solid line to its dotted line position as viewed in FIGURE 9 in a clockwise direction but can not move in a counterclockwse direction beyond its solid line position of FIGURE 9. Advantageously, the spring 114 is provided to bias the feed finger 112 to its solid line position.

It will be apparent that during downward movement of the ram, the slide 78 will move rightwardly following the cam surface 74 under the influence of the spring 84 until it occupies the position shown in FIGURE 3. Such rightward movement of the slide member 78 causes counterclockwise movement of the lever 90 about its upper pivot 92, 94 with concomitant rightward movement of the feed block 100. The finger 112 is thus moved rightwarclly a distance substantially equal to the spacing between the individual terminals on the strip and snaps into the pilot hole of the next upstream terminal of the strip. During upward movement of the ram, the slide member 78 is caused to move leftwardly as viewed in FIGURE 3 thereby causing the lever 90 to move in a clockwise direction with concomitant leftward movement of the block 100. During this portion of the cycle, the feed finger 112 pulls the strip a distance equal to the spacing between the terminals and positions an uncrimped terminal on the anvil and also moves the previously crimped terminal to the bending station. The previously bent terminal is moved from the bending station to the severing station which is described immediately below.

The final operation of the disclosed embodiment comprises the shearing of the individual terminals from the strip 28 and, advantageously, the fragmentation of the stri as shown at 30 to facilitate its disposal. These shearing operations are carried out by means of fixed and movable shear blocks 116, 118 (FIGURES 11 and 12.) The fixed shearing block 118 is secured to the base plate and the movable shearing block is slidably mounted in this base plate and extends into a recess at the end of the main guide plate 42. The shearing block 116 is provided with a slot 120 which receives the portions 4, of the terminal strip and which is in substantial alignment with the flange 53 of the spacer plate 43. As best shown in FIGURE 12, the movable shearing block extends through a suitable opening 1111 this spacer plate so that upon rightward movement of the shearing block relative to the spacer plate, the terminal will be sheared from the portion 10 of the carrier strip. FIGURE 12 shows the position of this movable shearing block immediately after this shearing operation has been carried out. The carrier strip is, at the same time, sheared at 122 by the inward movement of the side of the shearing block relative to the fixed shearing block 118. Such shearing of the carrier strip facilitates its disposal in that long lengths of scrap carrier strip do not accumulate while the machine is being used.

Inward movement of the movable shearing block 116 is achieved by means of a bell crank 124 pivotally mounted on the base plate 38 at 128, see FIGURE 10. The leftwardly extending arm as viewed in FIGURE 10 of this bell crank has a pin slot connection 126 with a ledge 117 extending inwardly from the movable shearing block 116. The other arm 130 of this bell crank has a spherical surface bearing 132 on its end which is straddled by a pair of depending legs 136, 138 of a bar 140 secured to the lower end of the ram 34 (FIGURE 10). The opposed sides of the legs 136, 138 are not parallel but are contoured in a manner such that the bell crank is oscillated about its pivotal axes 128 during downward and upward movement of the ram. In the disclosed embodiment, the contour of the opposed sides is such that the bell crank is swung through a slight clockwise are at the end of the downward stroke of the ram thereby to actuate the shearing mechanism. Shearing can, of course, be carried out at other times during the cycle if desired by using a different cam arrangement.

In use, the operator merely locates a wire in the ferrule portion of the uncrimped terminal disposed at the crimping station and actuates the press through a suitable foot switch or other actuating device. During each operating cycle, the ram moves downwardly and crimps the terminal at the crimping station onto the wire. At the same time, the bending finger moves downwardly as disclosed above and bends a previously crimped terminal so that the ferrule portion of this previous crimped terminal extends upwardly and the wire extends upwardly as shown in FIGURE 2. Also, during the crimping cycle, the strip is indexed and the second terminal downstream from the crimping station is severed from the strip as described above. It will thus be apparent that a relatively complex series of steps are carried out with the disclosed embodiment notwithstanding the fact that the apparatus itself is of relatively simple and compact construction. Furthermore, all tooling is contained in a single unit application, thus providing for interchangeability of applications.

Changes in construction will occur to those skilled in the art and various apparently different modifications and embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The matter set forth' in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by Way of illustration only. The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective against the prior art.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for crimping ladder strip terminals onto wires, said terminals having ferrule forming portions extending transversely of the plane of said strip each of said ferrule forming portions having a neck, said apparatus comprising: a crimping die and a crimping anvil, said die being movable relatively towards and away from said anvil along a predetermined path, feed track means for guiding a strip of said terminals along a feed path extending towards and past said anvil with the plane of said strip parallel to said predetermined path thereby to position the ferrule portion of the leading uncrimped terminal of said strip on said anvil whereby, said leading uncrimped terminal is crimped onto a wire upon positioning a wire in the ferrule portion of said leading terminal and upon relative movement of said die towards said anvil, and bending means on said path downstream from said anvil for bending said neck of the ferrule portion of a previously crimped terminal relatively towards the plane of said strip into a U-shape.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including severing means downstream, relative to said feed path, from said bending means for severing said terminals from said strip.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including a reciprocable ram, said die being mounted on said ram, said bending means being mounted on said ram and beside said 7 die, said bending means being engageable with said previously crimped terminal to bend said previously crimped terminal during movement of said die towards said anvil.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said bending means is movable laterally with respect to said path, and including eamming means for controllably moving said 'bending means laterally with respect to said path during movement of said die towards said anvil.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 wherein said bending means comprises a bending finger, said finger being mounted on said ram by means of an arm pivoted to said ram.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein said camming means is adjustable to control said lateral movement of said bending finger during movement of said ram.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 including support plate means downstream from said anvil, said support plate means being movable into engagement with the terminal being bent and being movable out of engagement with said terminal being bent to permit feeding of said strip, and means actuated by said ram for moving 8 said support plate into, and out of, engagement with said terminal being bent. 1

8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 in which said crimping die and anvil, said bending means, and said severing means are contained in a single applicator, said applicator having a reciprocable ram for actuating said bending means and said severing means and for moving said die relatively towards said anvil.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,800,158 7/ 1957 Martines. 3,184,950 5/1965 Sitz 72--331 3,359,780 12/1967 Kerns et a1 i. 72--421 3,386,153 6/1968 Lau et al.

THOMAS H. EAGER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

